Archive for October 2020
No Ordinary Halloween
Every year at Halloween the houses on a street nearby host a series of creative decorations, mostly featuring life-sized plastic skeletons. It’s a well-known local phenomenon, a must-see event attracting many passers-by and so many cars that there’s sometimes a traffic jam in this quiet spot. These Halloween decorations are a generous offering to the…
Read MoreQuarantine Halloween
The pandemic and this year’s relentless stream of scarier-than-any-true-crime news is doing strange things to many of us. I had two dogs when it started. Now I have three. Desperate times call for desperate measures is what I’m telling people. This new dog was irresistible—as a puppy, she’s almost embarrassingly cute, Hallmarkian in a way…
Read MoreThank God for Dogs!
Never before has the companionship of a dog meant more than during this pandemic. As we shelter in place and wait for the next turn of events, there’s one thing we can count on in the face of uncertainty—the love of our dogs. As an expression of gratitude for all that dogs provide us, I…
Read MoreLeading with Dignity in Times of Crisis
After spending two decades facilitating dialogues for some of the world’s most intractable conflicts (Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland, Colombia, Sri Lanka, US/Cuba, Libya to name a few), one day I had the startling realization that I might have uncovered a missing link in my understanding of conflict. Why was it that parties could not sign on…
Read MoreNew Normal
Covid-19 has provided me with an opportunity to reassess process and subject matter in a number of ways. At the start of the pandemic, my practice mainly consisted of attempting to evoke the sensation of sunlight passing through the leaves of trees. This series, entitled komorebi, is based on the Japanese word that describes this…
Read MorePL Recommends #4
In this installment of PL Recommends, we look at how art can keep us connected when the pandemic keeps us apart and how artists are creating messages encouraging communities to participate in public health measures to decrease the spread of COVID. Public health messaging has to be relevant to the individual for these practices to…
Read MoreDrive-in Diversion
One really exciting event we looked forward to each fall was the annual Montclair Film Festival, now in its 10th year. But because of Corona restrictions we can no longer stand on long lines waiting to get into packed venues, looking for neighbors and friends to say hello to. But kudos to the bright and…
Read MoreAt the Start of This
I live alone in Boston, in a small garret at the top of a 19th-century townhouse in the Back Bay neighborhood. From this perch I am fascinated by the layers of the city, the stratification of its buildings and histories, and the alternating aural landscape filtering upwards. Since the pandemic began, I have spent most…
Read MoreWho Could Have Imagined…
It’s almost trite to see a slice of life in the time of Corona and ask, “Who could have imagined this…X months ago?” But it’s still the question that runs through my mind every time I frame a composition in my camera’s viewfinder. Who could have imagined that we’d schedule drive-through flu shots administered in…
Read MoreWhich Way the Wind Blows
August was hot and dry, as every year in Boston gets hotter and drier. Leaves on the trees are tinged with yellow long before summer is even over. The pandemic has pushed climate change into the background, despite a surging season of fires, hurricanes, floods and drought across the country. All over New England, weakened…
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